The Washington Nationals revealed more details of their planned year-long tenth anniversary celebration Tuesday at Nationals Park, including new giveaway items, concessions, and an anniversary ad campaign, plus some features being added to the ballpark itself.

Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer Valerie Camillo has embraced the team’s fans on social media, and upped the ante Tuesday by hosting a small group of active fans at the ball park, announcing the new programs, and asking them to share the news via social media.

Among the many pillars of the year-long campaign is be an effort to thank the DC community for supporting the Nationals. The thank-you effort will include unexpected acts of thanks, kicking off on Wednesday as team representatives will show up at a Maryland McDonald’s location and pay for lunch for all patrons who show up during that hour.

Elements of the team’s new ad campaign were also revealed. The “Ten Years Of…” theme will focus on ten years of memorable game moments, but also embrace other aspects of the fan experience, including the development of a young fan base in the DC community.

The previously-announced promotion/giveaway schedule was enhanced with details about several new giveaway items tied to fan-inspired “theme nights.” For 80s night, fans will receive a Nationals-themed rubiks cube. For Star Wars day, fans will receive a Nats-themed R2D2 beverage coozie. For college night, fans will receive fairly large and substantial-looking tailgate chairs in UVA colors. Quantities have yet to be announced.

Images of the first three “10 Year” commemorative bobblehead dolls show Livan Hernandez throwing the first pitch in Nationals history in his road uniform, Ryan Zimmerman pumping his fist after walking off the first game in Nationals Park history, and Stephen Strasburg tipping his cap after his major league debut.

Finally, the 10th anniversary nesting doll was revealed to including dolls of Max Scherzer, Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero, and Frank Robinson. All changes have been updated here

Nationals Park itself gets two significant updates for 2015. The locations of notable home runs in Nationals history will receive permanent recognition in the form of red painted seats. The initial “inductees,” chosen based on distance and historical significance, include Ryan Zimmerman’s home run from the stadium’s first game in 2008, Adam LaRoche and Bryce Harper’s two third level home runs from April, 2014, Jayson Werth’s 2012 NLDS Game 4 walk-off home run, Michael Morse’s Red Porch dinger from July, 2012, and Bryce Harper’s third level shot during the 2014 playoffs.

In the Club Level, or more accurately, The Norfolk Southern Clubhouse level, a first-of-its-kind mechanical scoreboard wall has been installed to provide game updates for those taking advantage of the club’s indoor amenities during the game.

The wall-sized scoreboard features model trains that move along tracks to indicate balls, strikes, and outs, and pop out of bases to indicate baserunners. Above the club level, a model train will now run nonstop during and after the games.

New food options were not discussed, however Camillo shared that a beer cart will be featuring a custom brew made specifically for the Nationals’ tenth anniversary season. Its name: Sam Adams Nats Anniversary IPA.

2015 marks the tenth anniversary of baseball’s return to Washington, and the milestone will be the centerpiece of the team’s marketing campaign, with season-long promotions celebrating ten years of memorable moments. Fans will be encouraged to use the hashtag #Nat10nals in social media throughout the year.

The theme will be highlighted on what the team is calling “10-Year Tuesdays,” one Tuesday each month that will feature special guests, pregame ceremonies, and a collectible keepsake for the first 10,000 fans. The giveaways collectively will fit inside a commemorative tin, which will be the giveaway for the first 25,000 fans on opening day.

The tin features a new 10 year anniversary logo that will also appear on jerseys worn by Nationals players and coaches, official game balls, bases and lineup cards throughout the season.

Five bobbleheads will be distributed commemorating great moments in Nationals history. As was announced last week, these and five other major giveaway items were being revealed by fans as part of the Ten Days of Teddy promotion.

Last year’s Jayson Werth Garden Gnome was the most popular giveaway in team history, and so another gnome giveaway is planned featuring Anthony Rendon. Camillo teased that a unique new giveaway scheduled for August 5 could top the garden gnome in fan popularity. UPDATE: That item will be a Jayson Werth Chia Pet. Camillo said this is the first baseball giveaway of its kind.

Saturday, May 9 will be dedicated to the inaugural 2005 team and its Hall of Fame skipper Frank Robinson. Robinson will return to Nationals Park where he’ll be joined by former players and special guests, and watch as his name is added to the Nationals Park ring of fame.

By popular demand, the team will also introduce “theme nights,” an idea borrowed from other teams an reportedly the subject of frequent suggestions by fans. July 19 will be Star Wars day, in which fans will receive an R2D2 drink coozie. Here’s guessing there will be more than one wookie showing up wearing Werth’s #28 jersey.

The known dates are on the schedule below. Additional dates Nats postgame live concerts will be updated here as they are announced:

2015 Washington Nationals
Promotion / Giveaway Schedule

Date/Time

Opponent

Promotion

Mon 4/6

NYM

Commemorative Tin (25,000 fans)

Mon 4/8

NYM

Rally Towel (all fans)

Thu 4/16

PHI

Black Heritage Night

Fri 4/17

PHI

Military Appreciation Night

Sat 4/18

PHI

Pups in the Park

Sun 4/19

PHI

Screech’s Birthday
Scout Day #1
Kids Run the Bases
Signature Sunday

Tue 4/21

STL

10-Year Tuesday:
Stationery Set (10,000 fans)

Mon 5/4

MIA

Great Moments in Nationals History:
Livan Hernandez Bobblehead Commemorating 2005 First Game in Nationals History (25,000 fans)

The Washington Nationals promotion/giveaway schedule — including the identities of the 2015 bobblehead days — will be revealed over the first ten weekdays of February by fans, with the help of racing president Teddy Roosevelt.

Each weekday from February 1st-13th between 11:00am and 1:00pm, Teddy Roosevelt will appear somewhere in the DC metropolitan area and tweet about his location. The first fans to find him each day and show him the tweet will find out the date of a promotional giveaway and get to make the announcement from their own Twitter accounts.

The Nats are looking for men and women to take on the roles of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, William Howard Taft, and yes, Theodore Roosevelt for the 2015 Major League Baseball season.

Applicants must be at least 5’7” in height and be in good enough physical shape to run 200 yards in the sun wearing a 50-pound costume in approximately 40 seconds or less. Between forty and sixty applicants are typically selected for invitations to audition.

Tryouts this year are closed to the public. In previous seasons, candidates have been asked to race against each other, run a 40-yard dash, dance, and show their celebration skills during the auditions, which are held rain or shine.

For a sense of what’s in store for applicants, check out one of our video chronicles from a few years back:

For six years from 2006 through 2012, Washington Nationals fans talked of The Curse of Teddy Roosevelt, and everybody knew what they meant: Teddy’s continued losses in the team’s presidents race were seen as a curse that kept the team from winning.

Outfielder Jayson Werth attempted to interfere with the presidents race in September, 2011. “People can laugh,” Werth said. “To me, the Presidents Race and Teddy Roosevelt are very symbolic of where this organization goes.”

But since the Rough Rider won his first-ever presidents race title this year, and extended his victorious ways into the 2014 postseason, many fans have concluded that the Nats are doomed to playoff failure precisely because Teddy is now winning.

An informal review of this week’s playoff chatter on Twitter (excerpts below) reveals a strong anti-Teddy Roosevelt sentiment that grew with each Bull Moose victory and each Nationals postseason loss.

So how did this happen?

Talk of a curse among fans goes back to the days of RFK Stadium, and was the inspiration for this blog, but of course back then it was Teddy’s failure to win that was the problem.

After the team opened Nationals Park and Teddy’s losing streak passed the 250 mark, Washington Times columnist Thom Loverro first compared it to famous baseball curses that had prevented the Cubs and Red Sox from winning for generations.

Then remarkably, just before the team’s first playoff appearance in 2012, Huffington Post editor Brandon Wetherbee, a longtime Cubs fan, pleaded that the Nats not let Teddy Win until after the team won the World Series. He argued that a Teddy victory followed by anything short of a championship would forever link Roosevelt to a reversed curse, much like the Curse of the Billy Goat that has haunted Cubs fans since 1945.

Even as the Nats record improved and they roared back into playoff contention in 2013, a new myth was establishing itself: the Nationals had taken a turn for the worse since they let Teddy Win. When the 2014 season began and for the first time Teddy started winning more frequently, the myth grew:

#Nationals haven't been the same since they started to let Teddy win races..

That data is hardly conclusive. Teddy only started winning regularly this year, and during the recently-completed 2014 regular season, the Nationals won an impressive 69% of games in which Teddy won the presidents race:

2014 Results

President

RegularSeasonRecord

TeamRecord

TeamWinning%

Roosevelt

26

18-8

69%

Lincoln

25

15-10

60%

Taft

12

9-3

73%

Jefferson

11

5-6

45%

Washington

10

5-5

50%

This record includes two occasions in which the Nats played a 13-inning home game. Both times, Teddy won the late “bonus” race, and the team lost. Counting only the regular fourth-inning race, the team was 18-6 (75%) when Teddy won.

But the story changes during the postseason. Since Teddy’s first win in 2012, the Nats have played five home playoff games. Teddy has won all of the presidents races, including two during Saturday’s 18-inning contest, and the team has posted a dismal 1-4 record.

Thus the curse.

As you can see, the Twitter curse talk started slowly after the Nats’ Game 1 loss:

Then came game 2. Teddy won the 4th inning race, and then the team suffered a blown save in the 9th inning. In the 13th inning, Teddy won again. Finally, the Nationals lost by a score of 2-1 in epic, record-breaking, heart-wrenching 18-inning fashion, and the chatter really picked up:

When the Nats hit the road and won game three in San Francisco, things quieted down. The momentum had shifted, but people still were getting digs in at Teddy. Then came game 4, in which defensive gaffes and wild pitches led to all three of the Giants’ decisive runs. The Nats were eliminated in embarrassing fashion.

Somebody had to take the blame:

@hgil@timkrepp positive point to tonight's game – no presidents' race for you-know-who to win and ruin everything!

It seems likely that until the Nationals win the World Series, this myth will continue to propogate, but I’d like to offer an alternative interpretation of things. The Nationals introduced a fifth racing president, William Howard Taft, after the 2012 season. Perhaps it’s a #TaftCurse that kept the Nats out of the playoffs last year, and caused this year’s postseason meltdown. Taft knocked things out of balance. He’s not one of the Mount Rushmore four. Get rid of Taft, and perhaps harmony will be restored at Nationals Park.

As the Washington Nationals arrive in San Francisco with their backs to the wall in the National League Division Series playoffs, fans back home have taken matters into their own hands.

Longtime Nats fan and self-titled “Rubber Chicken Man” Hugh Kaufman led a group of 14 fans in an impromptu gathering outside Nationals Park on Sunday Afternoon, where they performed a ritual sacrifice of a rubber chicken, and burned sage outside the centerfield gate.

Kaufman said the coaching staff was aware of the event and appreciated the fan support. “We’re going to take the bad juju and give it to the chicken,” he said, “so that when the Nats play in San Francisco…they’re going to win.”

After the chicken was beheaded, Kaufman carried the decapitated rubber toy around the centerfield gate as fellow fan Jenn Rubenstein burned sage in an act known as smudging, which is reputed to bless a house and dispel it of negative energy and influences.

Among the many firsts in a night of firsts Saturday at Nationals Park, The Nats racing presidents held their first-ever postseason presidents race doubleheader, running a second race as NLDS Game 2 dragged into the night.

In the fourth inning, Teddy entered the race late, coming out of the bullpen to trail the pack as they approached the home stretch.

But the presidents all stopped short, because waiting at the finish line was one of the team’s oddest “guest” characters of the season, Crab Nachos Libre.

Making his third appearance of the season, Crab Nachos Libre was joined by a new character, “Beef Nachos Libre,” and together they posed, broke blocks of wood over a pair of folding chairs, and generally blocked the finish line.

That’s when Teddy Roosevelt pulled out a pair of nunchucks. With the Nationals Park crowd chanting his name, the Rough Rider dazzled his nemeses with a display of nunchuck skills, then George Washington and Abe Lincoln launched over the chairs to take down the dos hermanos. Teddy raced ahead for the victory.

Here’s the team’s official video as called in the stadium by Nats Park PA announcer Jerome Hruska:

And here’s our finish line video, in which a fan can be heard repeatedly saying “Oh my god. That should be illegal!”

With the score tied 1-1 in the 13th inning, the presidents appeared again to run their first ever extra-innings postseason race. Teddy used the extra TV time to stop the proceedings again, this time grabbing a “Let’s Go Nats!” sign and leading the crowd in cheers. Teddy took the victory, marking the third time this season that Teddy has won in extra innings.

The team sported an 18-6 regular season record during Teddy’s other victories this season, but when Teddy wins in extra innings, the Nats have been a disappointing 0-3.